Many internet marketers and online marketers fail in two areas, building a email list and then capitalizing off of it. Your email list is your most important asset bar none save for the products you sell in which you own 100%. Many online markets feel that RSS, Twitter and Facebook are more important to build a relationship with their customer base, but this is flawed logic. Why? There is still no better way to engage and build your online community and relationships. But why don’t RSS, Twitter, Facebook and other social media tools trump your online list? Lets break it down simply shall we?

RSS feeds:
While this is worth doing, and may be well worth your time, most people do not even know what RSS is today. You are going to reach an older crowd with this tool. There is also the fact that most people subscribing to your feeds do not even read them, most people at best simply scan through your feed. Everyone uses email, how many people actually use RSS? Very few that’s who.

Facebook:
While Facebook is heavily used and is the Goliath of social media you need to ask yourself, how many of the brands that you have liked on Facebook do you actually visit their pages or keep up with their news? Friends of people who like your page or brand may indeed also like it spreading the word about your brand, but as far as getting time sensitive information out Facebook fails for marketers unless you go the paid advertising route via PPC adverts which is another beast altogether, in which case we would be talking PPC and not Facebook.

Twitter:
While people may “follow” plenty of people and brands on Twitter, how many people actually truly “follow” these people or brands on Twitter? You might read the tweets from 20 to 50 people and brands. Some people follow hundreds if not thousands of people and brands. Very few actually read these tweets, I mean we only have so many hours in a day right? If you are deluded into thinking their are legions of hungry people eagerly awaiting your every tweet you fail at online marketing. The chances of anyone reading your tweets even if they “follow” you are pretty low. You can always try services such as Bit.ly too start tracking your clicks on your links if you doubt me, you will be surprised at how low the click through rate actually is.

So why then does an email list trump the above means of connecting with customers and potential customers? For one when someone signs up to your email list they are giving you consent and permission to contact them, indeed they actually want you to contact them! It is also a huge sign of trust on your customers part, as we are already flooded with emails for the most part and they are asking you to be yet another item in their inbox. People also check their email daily if not hourly, but most people will not visit your website every day. You can easily ignore tweets, status updates and the like, but it is harder to ignore an email with a catchy eye drawing title from someone you opted into.

The last reason to use email marketing is that every single successful online marketer uses it. The ones pulling 6 figures plus per year all use it and would trade their social media in a heartbeat if it meant they could keep their hard earned email lists.

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